My First Bear Sighting

It's been a big month!  First I saw a moose, then some elk, and yesterday I saw my first bear.

This is not the bear I saw because of course I would see her on one of the few hikes where I didn't have my iPhone.  In order to show you a Colorado bear I searched the Internet for a photo that looked like my bear and looked like it wasn't a commercial shot.  But my bear looked like this except she was further away and was sitting down.  Other hikers told me that she had been walking just a few minutes before, but I missed that.  She just by a tree on a little hill next to the trail and looked at us looking at her.

Just for the record, she was by Hero's bridge near the base of the Enchanted Mesa trail, very near where the lower McClintock trail breaks away, and my hiking companions were Paula and her dog, Gus.

Some other hikers thought the bear was a she and might have a cub around and that's not a good thing because she'd be very protective especially around dogs.  So after we gave her a good look over we took a short detour on the McClintock trail and headed on down the hill to Chautauqua.  

Bears are something you take seriously around here.  

Paul and I watched the debates together which was quite fun.  While he had some thoughtful comments, he most enjoyed the funny noise that Trump made into his microphone while Clinton was talking about Russia and cybersecurity.  It was about 8:07 and Trump for some reason leaned into the mic and said something like "Ah, ooo."  We thought it was hysterical and played it over and over.

After reading this morning's papers I think maybe he was testing his mic; after all, it was malfunctioning, right?

I fortified myself before the debate by having drinks at the Biter Bar with Ben and Raymond.

There were some cute kids at the bar that night who were very entertaining.  This girl had come with her Dad who attended a birthday party for his friend.

She was so cute.

And check out her t-shirt.

This little fellow was at the bar for a kid's birthday party.  We thought it was very clever of the adults to choose this particular setting for the celebration!

Forget Chuckie Cheese! Now why didn't I think of that for any of Paul's parties?